The present invention relates generally to toothbrushes and more particularly to a novel construction of a toothbrush which is specially suited for cleaning the buccal and lingual surfaces of the teeth in one brushing operation and to methods of fabricating such a toothbrush.
Toothbrushes which are capable of cleaning the buccal and lingual surfaces of the teeth simultaneously are well known to those skilled in the art. Such toothbrushes have the advantage in that they lend themselves to a more efficient cleaning operation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 741,722 to William B. Ryder and Charles L. Reynolds there is disclosed a toothbrush which is capable of brushing the buccal and lingual surfaces in one operation and which comprises two opposite diverging bristle carrying heads bearing a plurality of tufts of bristles on their inner surfaces and a V shaped spring handle member attached at its free ends to the ends of the two heads. By squeezing the two shanks of the handle member toward each other, the bristles on the two heads contact the front and back of the teeth simultaneously.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,906 to George C. Collis there is disclosed another toothbrush which is capable of brushing the buccal and lingual surfaces in one operation and which comprises a pair of banks of bristles mounted on a central hub member. Each bank of bristles comprises a plurality of concentric rings in which the bristles are grouped together in the shape of radially oriented fingers extending outward from the central hub member in a "spider-leg" fashion, each finger comprising a tuft of bristles. In one embodiment of the invention a plurality of bristles also extend radially outward from the central hub member so as to provide a toothbrush capable of cleaning simultaneously the inter-proximal surfaces of the teeth as well as the buccal and lingual surfaces as the toothbrush is either rolled back and forth along the teeth in an oscillating motion or the tooth brush is "chewed on" in an up and down type motion. In another embodiment of the invention the central hub member is made of a compressible material which yields sufficiently to contact the finger like bristles against the buccal and lingual surfaces when chewing pressure is applied against it.
Toothbrushes which are capable of simultaneously cleaning the crown portions and either the buccal or lingual surfaces of teeth are also well known in the art.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,292,707 to Samuel A. Mantell there is disclosed a toothbrush in which the bristles are arranged in two separate groups. The bristles in the two groups are arranged substantially at right angles to one another and result in a brush which can simultaneously brush the crown portions of the teeth and either the buccal or lingual surfaces of the teeth depending on the particular location of the bristles relative to the teeth.
Finally, toothbrushes for simultaneously brushing a plurality of tooth surfaces and which comprise a pair of brush mounting heads mounted on a single holder with each brush mounting head containing a plurality of tufts of bristles are well known in the art. An example of such a toothbrush may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,668,385 to Geza Szekely et al.
Reference is also made to Collis U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,890 issued Oct. 12, 1976.